Joel Stein is a triple threat in the journalism business. He mans a desk job at Time magazine, he interviews celebrities on HBO and he just got a new gig writing a column for Entertainment Weekly. He is also responsible for some of the funniest print Q&As, conducted with famous people, pulling no punches, occasionally getting hung up on. "When you do annoy them, it sucks. Your stomach hurts and you vow never to do it again. I'm not confrontational," Stein says, referring to bad moments with Wesley Snipes and Sharon Stone, among others. He also has a new animated series about his life, "Hey, Joel," which will premier on VH1 in the spring.
In 2001, he spoke at Chico State University and later wrote a column about his experiences here, to mixed reactions. He had previously spent some time living in Chico, while writing at the Paradise Post. "I lived with a guy who had, like, a DUI and a stripper girlfriend," Stein says, referring to his summer here.
Jory John: So, would you ever come back here?
Joel Stein: Oh, I love Chico. Yeah. It was cool just to show my then-girlfriend Chico because I've lived there. I had a good time. And I visited people at the Paradise Post. I think it's a great town.
You'd come speak here, again?
Oh, yeah, that's gonna happen. I'm sure the invitation's in the mail. When you say "speak here," you mean "your room," right? Just you. You know, I got in trouble for the high school I went to (speak at) in Spokane, too. Those letters were even better, to be honest.
So, pretty much any school you've gone to, you just provoke a negative reaction?
No, I think when I went to Stanford, recently it wasn't negative.
Oh yeah, besides Stanford, of course, where they have a statue of you.
I've been trying to donate one to them. They don't know where to put it.
Did you see that on "Conan"?
Yeah, I just stole that from them.
So you're leaving Time magazine? Or you're staying there?
I am staying here. But I am going to write the back page of Entertainment Weekly every week, which I'm totally psyched on.
How did that come about?
You know, I've been trying to sell... They stopped, basically, running my column, for the most part, on Sept. 11, last year.
I've been looking for it.
Yeah. Me too. And so I've been kind of pitching it to everybody. They just hired a new editor at Entertainment Weekly. And he offered me the back page. I think it's a cool place, too. The back page of anything's cool.
That's a great magazine.
Yeah, there aren't that many places I was happy to go to, after Time. You know, that kind of screwed me. Because there's only a couple of newspapers, a couple of magazines. That was about it. And by a couple, I mean, like, three or four of each.
What else were you considering?
Well, I was talking to The New York Times. Although, I like the back page of Entertainment Weekly, better than the "Style" section of The New York Times.
Right. I bet it's a better read, you know?
Yeah, I do too.
And The New York Times is sort of national, but Entertainment Weekly's everywhere.
I know, I know. Yeah, it's probably my second choice. I mean, if I could get on The New York Times real page, like the editorial page... that would be my first choice. But this might be my second.
So are you going to be writing your regular column? Are you going to do celebrity stuff.
No, just my regular column. Yeah, I'm psyched.
You said you're staying at Time, though?
Yeah, this'll be my desk job. I can just do regular stories for them. And the occasional back page column, I guess.
So you'll stay at Time and do Entertainment Weekly?
Yeah. I've taken two people's jobs.
Do you have a ton of backlog of columns now, or ideas for columns?
Ideas. Not many I've really written.
Have you been keeping your eyes open for ideas?
Yeah, somewhat. I mean, not as much as I'm used to. But somewhat. So I'm making some calls today. To see if I can work some stuff out.
So when does the first one come out?
You know (the editor) didn't say. I get a feeling, a couple weeks. Maybe the beginning to middle of October.
Are you going to revive the Q&A in Entertainment Weekly, too?
No, I don't think so. I think I'll just start with a regular column. But they may bring that back, (at Time) someone told me, yesterday.
It seems like kind of a logical place to do celebrity interviews, though, you know?
Yeah. You know what's weird is that everyone does the Q&A, now. Newsweek lays it out on their equivalent of the "People" page, exactly the same way. Sports Illustrated does it and "EW" has their own one. It's just weird. It's nice, because it's in so many places, now, that I don't feel the need to do it.
They copied you.
Either they copied me or I copied someone or the culture's just changing. But regardless, everyone's now being much more confrontational and much less deferential to celebrities and it's much more real, so... I'm glad. I like reading them. I don't feel the need to do them as much.
You were right about the context, too. In Time, it's sort of surrounded by dry material.
Yeah, it's a good place to do it.
Yeah, it makes it a lot funnier. Probably Entertainment Weekly, a lot of it is sort of...
Irreverent.
What about the HBO gig? Are you still doing that?
Yeah, I just did a couple of those. They pay me well for a half day. It's just a couple hours of work. But they're fun.
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